


Slow Learners

by YearoftheFox



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: Denial of Feelings, F/M, Female Reader, First Crush, I have never tagged before, Mild Language, Overly dramatic teenagers, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23635108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YearoftheFox/pseuds/YearoftheFox
Summary: "Talbott Winger. The reason why you had been standing in Zonko’s shop, staring at fanged frisbees with glowing teeth and asked yourself why it was important to you to be pretty all of a sudden."The common teenage crush and insecurity in all its pointlessness and unnecessary drama (I guess): Reader and Talbott have been developing feelings for each other, but are too consumed by unawareness of their mutuality to realise how obvious things are. Penny has a big role as match maker and everybody's biggest treasure. There is an unnecessary prank side story and lots of inner thoughts. I am sorry.
Relationships: Talbott Winger/Reader, Talbott Winger/You
Comments: 12
Kudos: 96





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A few words ahead.
> 
> This story just 'happened' on a cloudy afternoon (turned evening) that I should have spent doing stuff for university. It was not planned, and therefore has not a very action filled plot. It contains a lot of contemplation and reflection of the characters in it. 
> 
> Since I am not a native speaker of English, there might be some mistakes concerning grammar or choice of words for which I'd like to apologise ahead.

“Everything alright?” Tonks asked, looking over your shoulder curiously. 

She caught you in thought, or rather in the midst of an inner monologue you were having with yourself often recently, contemplating on what you were to embarrassed to talk about with your friends. Sure, you knew that they were happy to talk about anything with you, but you felt uncomfortable about those questions you had been debating on with yourself lately. They were childish and so _unlike_ you. They were concerned with things you had never cared about before – like the burning issue of whether you should consider yourself pretty or not, or pretty _enough_. You sighed and mentally rolled your eyes at your own silliness.

You took your eyes off the fanged frisbee with glowing teeth, you had been pretending to look at, and turned around to answer Tonks.  
“Sure. Why wouldn’t it be?”  
You wouldn’t say that you were a particularly good liar, but you knew that was not the point. People did not believe a lie, because the person telling it was a good liar. People believed in lies whenever they wanted to believe in them. It was not a matter of talent on the side of the one telling the lie but more a matter of how much the one hearing it wanted to believe it. Tonks was sweet. She might have been mischievous and dressed a bit awkwardly but she was one of the most harmonious people in the world. At the end of the day she wanted everyone to be alright – especially her friends.  
“You were sighing as if you were contemplating giving up on our plan,” she shrugged her shoulders. 

The plan, right. Tulip and Tonks had dragged you to Zonko’s because they had heard about a new trick chocolate. Apparently, it made you sing every word you said. They wanted to get it into the teacher’s office early in the morning tomorrow. Ever since Penny had told you that Snape had a secret passion for chocolates, you three had wanted to use that to your advantage. This brand of magic joke chocolate would have been launched in two weeks, but you knew that Zonko would have got a sample beforehand. He usually did with almost all new prank articles. Mostly because they had been designed by former Hogwarts students who had spent their free time just as you in the joke shop and were grateful or nostalgic. So you had been stealing away from dinner tonight and went to Hogsmeade to convince Zonko that the chaos you could cause with his chocolate sample would be worth the obligatory lecture he would later receive from Professor Dumbledore for giving his students untested prank items. It wouldn’t have been the first time. 

Since Tulip was Zonko’s favourite, you and Tonks kept in the background, while your friend convinced the old man. Although, you were sure, Zonko didn’t really need much convincing. He stalled, because it would mean that Tulip gave him your detailed plan. He loved pranks and he enjoyed seeing students plot behind their teacher’s backs. That was probably why he had opened a joke shop in Hogsmeade of all places. Surely he could have had more success in Diagon Alley, but he wanted to be where the action was. Somehow you could imagine Tulip ending up taking over this shop after school. But she wanted to become an Auror. You grinned at the thought of the poor witches and wizards who would cross her path. 

Your grin grew wider when Tulip came towards you and Tonks with that devilish expression on her face. She had been successful.  
“I’ve got it! Let’s go. We need to meet Jae in an hour. He promised to sneak it into the teacher’s office.”  
“Jae is in on that?” you asked.  
Not that it surprised you that he would be compliant in a plan like this, but you had thought Tulip would bring in as few people as possible. Jae was good at sneaking things or himself in and out of anywhere, but Tulip had never really mentioned him in any conversation before. At least not in the ones about her future pranks. Jae was a friend of all of you – more or less – but none of you knew him well enough to regularly involve him in your shenanigans. Tulip winked at you. “How did you think we were able to sneak out of Hogwarts during dinner?”  
So he had been part of this from the beginning. But why? Tonks was skeptical as well.  
“Didn’t we say we’d do this just the three of us? Like just us girls. The gang.” She glanced at you. “I told you I was fine,” you tried to wave her off.  
“Sure,” Tonks smiled.

_Lies are only as good as the readiness of the person they are told to to believe them._ You thought. And you did not believe her. You knew that she knew that there was something you did not tell them. So did Tulip. So did Penny. You were quite relieved, however, that Tulip’s and Tonk’s approach at comforting you when they didn’t really know what was going on was not to try to have a heart to heart with you at every possible opportunity. You loved Penny, honestly, but sometimes she could be overbearing. That’s probably what Talbott had thought too when she had dragged you along to help her cheer him up. You wished she hadn’t. Nevertheless, Tulip and Tonks did try to make you feel better – in the only way they knew: a prank. And initially, their idea had been that this was just the three of you. The terrible three as Penny used to say.  
An apologetic expression spread over Tulip’s face.   
“I know. I’m sorry, but I wanted this to be something cheery … You know, because of all the shit that’s been going on recently. So, when I couldn’t come up with something suitable, I asked Jae whether he had heard of any funny prank products recently. It was him who told me about the chocolate.”   
She fidgeted with her dungbomb necklace; she was sorry. 

“Never mind. The more the merrier,” you winked. You could hear both of your friends exhaling held back air, relieved on hearing your answer. You really hoped they would stop worrying about you. The situation was painful enough as it was for you. They didn’t need to know, but neither did you want them to be worried. It wasn’t anything bad, really. Not considered from an outside point of view. Only in your head it felt like the doom which had made you distance yourself from your friends over the past few weeks. It will pass you told yourself. Stop giving it too much weight. It’s a stupid teenage crush. Nothing more. “Let’s not let Jae wait for too long, then,” you met your friends’s faces with a wide smile. 

Jae had indeed been waiting for a while when you three arrived at the kitchens to hand him the chocolate. He seemed to have been pacing up and down the corridor leading to the kitchens impatiently when he finally saw you. “About time,” he greeted you. But he wasn’t angry, quite the contrary. He grinned from ear to ear, apparently excited of what would happen in potions class tomorrow. You knew that the last bit of scrubbing pots he had been forced to do was because of Snape who had caught him sneaking some of the potion ingredients from class into his pockets. He said they were scraps from what they had used for the draught they were supposed to brew – but who knew. With Jae one could never quite be sure. You actually liked him nonetheless. 

You spent the rest of the evening with Tulip and Tonks, eating Bertie Bott’s Beans, joking about Zonko’s advances on Madam Rosmerta and how Barnaby had complained for the hundredth time that no girl wanted to date him. The topic hadn’t come up randomly. It was because Bill had joined all of you late that lunch and asked to sit between Penny and you in order not to be approachable. He had always been popular, especially with the girls. But since this was his last year, they had become more eager to ask him out. Even more so, since he had never really had a girlfriend or been seen with any girl that didn’t belong to your group. Apart from Emily, but you all agreed that she din’t count. 

Sitting between you and Penny was the perfect place to be safe from teenage girls. Everyone loved Penny, so they wouldn’t dare talk to someone next to her leaving her out of the conversation; you on the other hand were usually met with a mix of fascination and fear, so no one would dare talking over your head either. Barnaby had asked what was the matter and thus involuntarily given Bill the stage for a dramatic monologue over the annoying persistence of teenage witches and wizards. Charlie had rolled his eyes and made faces behind his brother’s back while André appeared a little too bored to not be suspected of listening.  
“I seriously do not understand what your problem is, Bill,” Penny cut him short after a few minutes, “Those girls are all pretty and clever and nice. It really wouldn’t hurt you to go out with one of them. You don’t have to _marry_ them. They just want to get to know you.”  
“Wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Bill answered dryly.  
“I think it would be awesome to go on a date with a clever and pretty witch,” Barnaby had thought out loud and made everyone of you smile.

It had been a nice lunch. For a long time you had not been enjoying a meal with most of your friends at the same table. And for a long time you had not laughed as much as you did today. You suspected Penny to be behind all this. She probably had urged everyone to have lunch together, because she knew it would cheer you up. She was this world’s biggest treasure. You knew you were unfair when you found her overbearing. You knew it wasn’t nice to cut her off as you had been doing the past couple of days. The fact that she was still trying to cheer you up despite you being such an awful friend made you sick with a bad conscience. But somehow you couldn’t stop being angry at her. She was the one who had started all this. And you suspected that she had an idea of what was going on inside you and thus pushed it even further. You hadn’t asked for it; you didn’t want it. You liked Talbott (very much) and you were sure that if you worked hard on suppressing these unfounded feelings, he could become a very good friend. 

Talbott Winger. The reason why you had been standing in Zonko’s shop, staring at fanged frisbees with glowing teeth and asked yourself why it was important to you to be pretty all of a sudden.  
_A clever and pretty witch._  
Somehow it was hard to believe that Talbott did even think of girls the same way Barnaby did. You had seen him at lunch. Just from the corner of your eye and only for a bit. He had been sitting alone at the Ravenclaw table. His spot. His loneliness. It had never appeared to be a sad loneliness; it had something superior, majestic even.  
Lies are only as good as the readiness of the person they are told to to believe them.  
Talbott had never told you lies. He did not lie. He just didn’t talk. And that hurt. You understood it; you really did. It had been hard to open up about Jacob to your friends too. Comfort wasn’t exactly a thing you were used to. Your parents were old fashioned. They did not talk about feelings. You knew they sincerely loved you (and your brother) but they would neither talk, nor listen – not in that way.  
It had been like entering a whole new world when you had found friends at Hogwarts to whom you could talk; to whom you could listen. You had come to value this. You had come to understand that affection could only be built between people who talked to each other and with each other. Had you become greedy, because now talking and listening to your friends wasn’t good enough any more? Why did it seem so insignificant now, compared to your wish to listen and talk to Talbott? Why was it so painful that he so rarely gave you an opportunity to do so?

Have patience, Penny would have suggested.  
Of course she would have. You had tried to be patient. That was how you and Talbott had become a tiny bit closer over the past two months. But how long could patience last until it became hopeless? You were still contemplating that when you walked through the castle. Actually, you had planned to go to your dorm. But you really didn’t want to be in a room with other people at the moment. Especially not with Penny. She would ask questions again and you would find it hard not to yell at her.  
This whole crushing business was a mess. It was so different from what happened in Rowan’s silly teenage novels. So much more insecure and scary – and that somehow made you angry. Why did so many of your fellow students apparently enjoy that whole crushing thing this much? Maybe because they didn’t have a crush on the most impossible guy in the world. Or maybe because they were clever and pretty and had better chances of their feelings being returned.  
You growled. Now you were being over-dramatic. You knew you were not a troll. You also knew that maybe, just maybe, you were a tiny bit jealous of Penny. She was undeniably the prettiest witch in Hogwarts. She also was clever and lovely. And she had known Talbott first. Yes, it was childish, but you honestly wondered whether Talbott might not have a thing for Penny. Whenever you two had been talking about her, his face seemed to brighten up. It was because of the dissatisfaction you felt at that that you had discovered how much you liked Talbott. She was closer to him than you were. And who could compete with her?

And what if she liked him too? She never said so. And she also never let show whether she liked someone more than just a casual friend. Many boys (and some girls) were trying to get closer to her, you knew. Last Valentine’s day had been the best proof of that. She had got more chocolate than all of your friends could eat. Did she treat all of the admirers with that light-hearted and casual resistance, because she already had someone she liked?  
Valentine’s day would be coming up again soon. You’d never really bothered about it before, but now you found yourself seriously considering it an opportunity. But an opportunity for what? Sending him a love letter? That was way too cheesy for your taste. And you were too proud. He also didn’t like chocolate, so that wasn’t an option either. Why were you even thinking about that? Hadn’t it been just three days ago that you told yourself you would do nothing and sit it out until this stupid crush was over? You knew it was the evening – and the moon you could see through every window you were passing while strolling through the castle’s corridors. For whatever reason moonlight reminded you of Talbott. Well, everything did, more or less. You hated it. 

You hadn’t noticed that the turns you were taking led you to the West Towers.  
Of all places, you had to go to the Owlery! Fate – or whatever this was – truly was cruel.  
You let out a not so muffled curse. And why would you care to keep it quiet. At this time of day no one would be here any way. Or would there? Truth be told, you had never been to the Owlery much before you knew Talbott. Once a moth to write the obligatory letter to your parents. That was all. But it was _his_ place. You had been happy when he offered to share it with you occasionally. It was nice to spend time with just him up here. Him and all the owls. But there was something very comforting and warm in the low sounds their feathers made. That sound belonged to Talbott too. Moonlight and the rustling of feathers – that was him. It felt warm to think of it. Warm and a bit like home. You felt that you had become sentimental. For a moment you dwelled on it. Then you realised again that this was not really playing into your plan of letting the whole stupid teenage crush thing pass. 

You cursed again. This was too much. When would you be normal again? Determined to be as grown up as you could be, you turned sharply and started to make your way to your common room. Only that you didn’t get very far. A familiar voice called your name from behind you. Darker and more voluminous than one would think with a hint of a rasp in it. You liked the sound of it, even though you didn’t get to hear very much of it. 

“Talbott. I didn’t know you were up here.”  
He smiled. It was a subtle smile. Not very big. But still, it touched his amber eyes and sparked that little glow in them you could have looked at forever. His smile, though, did not last very long. After noticing your furrowed forehead, it gave away to a worried expression. 

“Is everything okay?”  
“What? Why is everyone asking me that? Yes, why wouldn’t it be? I just needed a bit of a walk and since I cannot have Dumbledore catching me sneaking around in the Forbidden Forrest again, I needed to keep within the confines of the castle.”  
“The confines of the castle?” he smirked again, raising a brow. Could he please stop looking like this?  
“Y-yes.”  
“What about your trip to Hogsmeade a few hours ago?”  
How did he–?  
“You and your delinquent friends are planning something, aren’t you?” He still had that slightly arrogant, knowing smirk around the corners of his mouth. You hated to admit it, but it really did look good on him.  
“We’re not delinquents,” you pouted. His smirk grew into an amused grin.  
“But you’re planning something.”  
“Kind of.”  
“What is it?” 

You looked straight into his face, unsure whether he was still joking or if he really wanted to know. There seemed to be a spark of curiosity in his eyes. You gained confidence from that.

“I thought you wouldn’t take any interest in such childish things as pranks, Winger,” you teased him. 

You knew you wouldn’t have to tell him. Talbott wouldn’t push you, but he seemed to take amusement from your, Tulip’s and Tonks’s little shenanigans. It hadn’t taken you long to realise that he was less dry and serious than he made people believe. You actually sometimes believed he enjoyed teasing you a little bit himself. He looked down into your face, the amused spark still in his eyes.

“Well that depends. In your case, I’m quite interested in what that secret trip to Hogsmeade means.”

Your heart skipped a beat. It was not fair. He was joking. It was not really about you. You told yourself to stop being so selfish. 

“How do you even know? Does ‘flying solo’ now include spying on your friends behind their backs?”

Additionally to that amused spark, there was now something else in his expression, but you couldn’t quite determine what. To be fair, he was never easy to read. He was Talbott after all.

“Well, I didn’t see you with the rest of your friends at dinner which was curious, since you entertained the whole hall with your laughter at lunch. And when I saw that Tonks and Karasu were missing too, I couldn’t help but be suspicious. After all, McGonagall told me to be careful around you, because you are a bit of a trouble maker.”  
“Didn’t stop her from helping me help you.”  
“I’m glad she did. What about the prank now?”

You grinned playfully and shook your head. Being around him was easy, when it was like this.

“Talbott, Talbott, Talbott... Clever birds like you should know better than to get involved with ‘delinquents’ like me. We’re up to no good and only would get you into trouble. You’ll have to wait and see.”

“And when will I see what you three have been plotting?”

“Tomorrow, hopefully. If Penny was right about Snape’s secret indulgences, that is.”

His eyes grew wide. “What in Merlin’s name are you planning?”

You shrugged your shoulders innocently. He gave you a doubtful look. 

“Is Penny in on this too?” he asked curiously. Your heart sank a bit. So when Penny was involved, he became interested? To be fair, you brought her up, but still.

“Don’t worry. She’ll be safe. She might know, but she is not involved. Good night, Talbott.”

And so you left. Angry and upset. You enjoyed having pointless small talk with Talbott and it would have been nice if Penny’s name hadn’t been dropped. You did not turn around, so you couldn’t see Talbott’s confused and slightly hurt expression. The blood rushing through your head when thousand thoughts of anger, and jealousy, and guilt were crossing your mind also made it impossible for you to hear your name softly being said as you stormed off.


	2. Chapter 2

He couldn’t recall whether there had ever been a time when he hadn’t found you confusing. Intriguing, sure, but still very much confusing. Before his mother’s necklace went missing, he had not paid you much attention. He knew you were Penny’s friend and as such, he thought you deserved to be thought of as a bit of a better a person than the rest of Hogwarts, but not more. Penny had mentioned you more often than the others, so it was only natural that he knew your name, and the story about your brother, and the colour of your eyes, and that you were good at charms. But everyone would have known that. Yet, Penny – enthusiastic as she was – had to take it as a sign that he would want to get to know you better. She had been trying to get him to meet all of her friends, but he had always blocked off her attempts successfully – until the necklace got lost. 

“You know who could really help you find it, Talbott?”  
“You’re not telling any of your friends about my parents.”  
“What if she found it out herself?”  
“Who?”

He had seen Penny grin before, but never so triumphantly. It was quite scary, to be honest. 

In the end, he had agreed to let you help him search for the necklace – on the condition that you would find out why this mattered on your own. (He certainly wouldn’t let any idiot help him.) Secretly, he had hoped you’d fail. But you hadn’t.  
On the contrary, he had failed. Failed to keep you at a distance. 

He remembered your smug face quite well, when you had caught him talking about him and you as ‘we’. For a while he was sure he was angry at you and had only refrained from denying it at the time, because he would have had to bother with you for longer then. That had been the last bit of resistance inside him.  
A few weeks later, he knew that he liked this ‘we’. Of course, he would never acknowledge that in front of Penny or anybody else. Anybody else but you, that was.  
Somehow he felt it was important to let you know what you meant to him. He wanted to be sure you were aware that he had entrusted you with something he did not give to strangers easily: his friendship. He had thought about how to tell you, but in the end it turned out he didn’t had to. You knew. He saw it in the smile you gave him when you met him in the hallway and in the warm glow in your eyes on every rare occasion on which he managed to have a conversation with you. Things were easy with you – but still confusing.

At first, he had been confused about your insistence to be friends. Yes, Penny had been insistent too, but he had always managed to keep her at a distance of sorts. The shield he had built around himself got thinner in front of Penny, but it never cracked as it did with you. There was more force in your attentions towards him, he thought. You caused his shield to crack and fall apart bit by bit. He had never been able to mend it. 

But that was the next confusing thing about you: he didn’t want to. There was no shield needed with you. He never felt uncomfortable, even when you misstepped from time to time in the conversations you were having more and more frequently. (You were way more extroverted than him after all.) He was content around you and he cherished every evening hour you agreed to spend in the Owlery with him.  
It had always been his place. The smell and feeling of feathers all around him reminded him of his parents, and he had never felt alone up there. It was peaceful. Ever since you had come up here with him, it had become more than that. It was _warm_ somehow. More lively, because you were not really a quiet person, but also _better_. You did enjoy talking to him, he could tell. He also knew that you would have enjoyed listening to him, but it wasn’t as easy. He wanted to tell you so many more things, but somehow it seemed as if he was only learning it now.  
That was another confusing thing about you; he felt like there were things you were so much better at than him, but he also knew he really wanted to learn. Not to beat you, but to be on the same level as you – to stand next to you. You challenged him without posing a threat. He quite liked that.

But the last confusing thing about you was something that had developed only recently, maybe over the past month. He had been watching you before, of course. You were one of Penny’s friends, so why wouldn’t he. It was amusing to see you joke around and laugh with your friends, especially when he saw you, Tonks and Karasu plotting mischief. It _was_ childish behaviour, but he liked that wicked grin on your face when you were happy with a prank that worked out as planned. Often enough they didn’t. It also looked so much better on you than the furrows on your forehead whenever your thoughts went to the Cursed Vaults and your brother. He always felt helpless when he saw sorrow creep up your face like that.  
So now, naturally, he would enjoy every smirk, grin, smile or laugh on your face even more, no matter where it came from. But recently, he found it more pleasant when he knew it was meant for him particularly. When you talked for hours in the Owlery, he knew it wasn’t anyone else but him who could see it. Well, him and the owls, but sharing with them was okay. Seeing you happy in the corridors or the Great Hall, on the Quidditch pitch or in the courtyard was great; yet, having you like that, just to himself, was fantastic. And he wanted to have more of that. 

He never wanted to have much to do with other people, but now he found himself wanting to get to know your friends well enough to sit with you more often during lunch or dinner, just to have at least a bit of you outside of the Owlery. He didn’t really count playing gobstones or the occasional butterbeer in Hogsmeade as private moments with you. The Three Broomsticks and the Clocktower Courtyard were way too crowded. He wanted to have more of you, all of you, for himself. Was he egoistic? Penny had shared you as a friend with him readily. Why did he want her to be less your friend than him? 

You _mattered_ more – somehow. 

He had been surprised to find you at the Owlery this evening. You never came up on your own. You usually waited for him to ask you – probably because you were careful not to be overbearing. He knew that. He had been incredibly happy to see you up there. The thought that you had come up on your own and the unexpected prospect of a little conversation with you alone had made him feel all light and feathery inside.  
It was true that he got suspicious, because he hadn’t seen you at dinner. Yet, telling you it was only because you had been so noticeable to everyone during lunch and finding the silence at dinner conspicuous was only half the truth. He always looked out for you; he always got nervous when you weren’t there. So he had left early, not having been particularly hungry this evening, and taken a few turns about the castle grounds in his bird form. Flying was the only thing equal to being with you. He had seen you, Tonks and Karasu hurrying up to the castle, coming from Hogsmeade, and he could hear your victorious giggling. 

It was apparent that you three were up to no good again. He had never been a trickster himself, but when you plotted with the girls, he was always curious. Of course he would find out what you had planned soon enough, because Hogwarts might have been big enough not to know all the creatures living within its walls, but students were quite talkative, even if he did not join their conversations or gossip. Knowing you had something going on that he had no idea about, however, bothered him a bit. He wasn’t jealous, but he would have preferred to know. Besides that, he knew you took a bit of pride in your mischief. Therefore it was the first thing that came to his mind, when you ran into him. So he asked you. He wasn’t completely satisfied with your answer, much less with the way in which you had ended your conversation so abruptly. 

As he went to bed, still thinking about the mischievous glow in your eyes, he realised that today had been the first day in a while that he had seen you sincerely happy. Why was that? You had told him you were alright, but maybe he should ask Penny tomorrow morning. 

At breakfast in the Great Hall, he was somewhat nervous. He had talked about you with Penny before, but he did never quite like the way she looked at him whenever he brought you up. It was this somewhat superior smile, she wore, that pissed him off. She had been talking about you to him all the time, why was it so weird when he talked about you to her? But he needed to ask her. He was afraid that there was something wrong, something you did not tell him. Somehow that hurt.  
But what was he expecting? You two had only become friends earlier this year; it was unlikely that you would share everything with him in such a short time. _But he wanted to share everything with you_ , a small voice in his head whispered. _If only he knew how_. 

Fortunately, Penny was an early riser, just like him. And for some reason unbeknownst to him she seemed to have expected him already when he entered the Great Hall.  
“Good morning, Talbott,” she smiled.  
“Penny.”  
“Been up late?” she asked and there it was already, that bloody knowing grin.  
“What’s so funny about that?”

Penny told him that you had come to the dormitory late yesterday night – and that you had left some owl feathers at the doorstep to the room you shared with her and Rowan. Of course she knew they were owl feathers. That’s the downside of having a friend who is the best witch of your year at potions. They pay attention to details. Neither her nor Rowan or you owned an owl, so it was quite clear where those feathers came from. And she knew that the two of you met at the Owlery frequently. Talbott remained silent for a while. He liked Penny, but sometimes she was a bit too much for him. He almost decided not to ask her, when her smile gave way to a concerned expression. After a short pause, she hesitantly asked him a question he wouldn’t have expected. 

“Did you two have a fight?”  
“What? No, no we didn’t.”  
“She was quite upset, when she went to bed, you know. She wouldn’t even talk to me. And she was still awake when I got up. I have never seen her this way.”  
“Well, she did run off rather unexpectedly, last night. That is why I actually wanted to ask you if something’s the matter.”

Penny avoided his gaze. He knew immediately that there was something going on that even Penny Haywood had no idea of. She was never as uncomfortable when she was in the picture – even if it was about something negative. She was talkative, but if friends told her secrets, she kept them secret. She would always remain calm, when people would try to get them out of her. Her being this nervous meant that she had actually hoped he knew more. 

“You have no idea either?” he asked, and couldn’t completely hide his surprise at that.  
“I thought it had something to do with you, you know. Because she has been talking about you less within the last week. I thought you might have had an argument or something.”

His heart sank. An argument? Was there something he had said to make you angry? No, there wasn’t, and you weren’t angry either. He had seen you angry – not with him, luckily. He had seen you when you had a fight with Charlie over some creature you were nursing in the Forbidden Forest, apparently. It had been ugly, even more so, because he had been scared of you. You had been rather tense and mumbled curses in Charlie’s direction for several days. Even with your friends you had been less casual than you used to be. It had escalated in a History of Magic class of all places. He almost was sure that Charlie and you would have punched each other if Andre and Barnaby hadn’t held you back. Bill was the one who brought peace, when he suggested a duel. You lost, but Charlie apologised, and ever since then you two had been as comfortable around each other as if nothing had ever happened. He was sure that had not been the only time you had been angry like this, because he knew you could be very hard-headed. But just yesterday he had seen you joking around with all of your friends, so you definitely weren’t angry. And you were quite joyful yesterday evening too, so you weren’t angry at him – he thought.

“Has it anything to do with the prank you were planning?”  
“Prank?”  
“She said you knew, even though you weren’t involved.”  
“I don’t.”  
“Oh.”  
“I know that Tulip has been trying to find something to take her mind off, though, and I can imagine quite well that it might be a prank. How come you know about it, Talbott?”  
“I saw her, Tonks, and Karasu coming from Hogsmeade yesterday evening.” 

He felt warmth rising in his cheeks and he knew that Penny saw him blushing even if he quickly looked down. This time he didn’t even have to look at her to know she was wearing that smile again. He could hear it as well as the playfully raised eyebrows.

“Saw her?”  
“I went flying around the castle grounds for a bit.”

He knew she didn’t buy it. 

“So you were ‘flying around a bit’, told her to come to the Owlery, and then she told you everything about it?”  
“No. I didn’t tell her to come to the Owlery. She came herself.”

Now Penny was earnestly surprised. She knew you usually wouldn’t come close to the Owlery if Talbott didn’t ask you. It was his sanctuary, and she knew you liked him too much to simply invade this sacred space of his. Although she was sure that sooner or later one of the two of you would have to start invading or otherwise you’d be drawing circles around each other for the coming two years at Hogwarts. She knew. 

“Were you angry at her?”  
“What? No! I was … happy … actually.”  
“And she ran off unexpectedly.”  
“Yes.”  
“What did you two talk about?”  
“I already told you. The prank.”  
“Just that?”  
“Yes.”

Talbott shifted uncomfortably.

“Penny?”  
“Yes?”  
“Is there any reason why she might be hurt?”  
“Hurt?”  
“She cannot be angry, because she would behave differently if she was. She is only this cold and antisocial like yesterday evening, when she’s hurt. You know, when Merula plays her stupid mind games on her, she reacts similarly.”  
“But Merula is still in the Hospital Wing because of the accident in Herbology; she hasn’t spoken to her recently.”  
“Has anything happened between any of you and her?”  
“No. We’re basically walking around her on egg shells, because she’s been avoiding us these past two weeks. The only ones she has not been distancing herself from are Charlie and Hagrid, because they are still nursing this Welsh Green in the forest lands. Idiots.”

He smiled. When Hagrid had told you and Charlie that he found a dragon that had crash-landed in the forest lands, you had been insanely happy. You had a thing for dangerous situations and you liked dragons almost as much as Charlie did. He should have been disapproving of your recklessness, but somehow he liked that about you too. 

He was interrupted in his tender thoughts by Penny who slapped herself on her forehead. 

“Oh, of course! How could I miss this!”

You weren’t hurt, not really. You were going out of your way to _prevent_ yourself from getting hurt. That’s why you had avoided her especially. Because she had always been able to guess your feelings. And – paradoxically – as easy going and open as you were with others, you were lousy at telling other people’s thoughts concerning yourself. Penny guessed that you were even worse when it came to Talbott, because liking him as much as you did made you very cautious about hurting his feelings. Way too cautious, apparently. And surely him never talking about it didn’t make it any easier. 

“What? Is it something about the dragon?”  
“No, surely not.” She grinned maliciously. “It’s about you.”

He shifted again. Somehow he did not like the turn this was taking. 

“What did I do?”  
“It’s more a matter of what you didn’t do, Talbott.” She pointed at him.  
“What?”  
“I should have known. But of course since I’m distracted by the thought of Beatrice half of the time, I totally missed it.”  
“Missed what?”  
“Talbott, stop pretending you don’t know what I mean. You’re not a Ravenclaw for nothing. You know that I know. That is why you have come to me with this in the first place.”  
“I came to you with this, because I don’t know anyone besides you and her.”  
“Charming. Anyways, you like her.”  
“Well, of course I do, we’re friends.”

Penny rolled her eyes. 

“You fancy her.”

Talbott forgot to breathe.

“You thought I wouldn’t notice that you asked her to spend time with you more often? Or that you rarely leave the Great Hall after her? Or that you just smiled when you thought about her stupid infatuation for that dragon? Hell, I’m your friend. Hers too. And I do have eyes.”

He turned beet red. He had suspected Penny to know, but it was even more embarrassing having her tell him how blatantly obvious he had been. But if she had noticed, then how come you were still like you always had been? Shouldn’t you know too? Wasn’t that what girls talked about when they were alone? Who they fancied and Abraxans or something. Although, he knew you weren’t like that. Still, if Penny knew, why did you apparently not?  
And what did that have to do with you being hurt? Were you that disgusted by him liking you this way?


	3. Chapter 3

Penny had seen the tumult of feelings and thoughts she had pushed her friend into. For a Ravenclaw, Talbott seemed quite slow at understanding what she was hinting at. And if he already struggled at comprehending the situation, how was she supposed to make you understand? And how was she supposed to talk to you about it? She knew now, why you had been avoiding her, at least she thought she knew. But to be honest, she was a little bit hurt you hadn’t confided in her. Did you trust her that little? Hadn’t it been her who had introduced you to Talbott? She would need to have a word with you. Probably before she would finally make Talbott tell you. Why were you two so slow? Now she would have to devise a plan to get you two talking. 

She was interrupted plotting by Talbott who still didn’t get it.

“Penny,” Talbott barely looked up at her, “do you think she is disgusted?”  
“What? No, why would she be?”  
“Well, if she knows what you know, but she acts hurt, does that mean, she is disappointed that I feel this way?”

It wasn’t exactly the nicest thing she had ever done, but Penny couldn’t help laughing at Talbott’s words. For someone so clever who acted so superior towards most other people, he was that insecure about you of all people?  
But she never got the chance to explain herself to him.

“Wow. I didn’t even know you could roar like that, Penny. What’s so funny?”

Tulip.  
Penny turned around to see you, Tonks, and Tulip coming towards her. Well, you were more or less dragged by Tonks, while avoiding Penny’s gaze, but you were moving towards her nonetheless.  
She looked back to Talbott, who had turned from beet red to ghostly white. How could you not notice he was acting weird around you, she thought. He wouldn’t be of much help, embarrassed as he was. So Penny decided to improvise.

“Oh, nothing. Talbott has just told me about that funny plan you three had.”

Shock and guilt ran through your veins at her words. He had told her? Great, Tulip and Tonks would probably not be happy at that. But of course he couldn’t not talk to Penny about it. You should have known. After all, they were much closer than you and him. He probably told her everything. You should have known that. Anxiously, you turned towards your two partners in mischief. To your utter astonishment, they didn’t look angry at all. Both of them were grinning from one ear to the other knowingly. Why did they find this so amusing?  
It was Tulip who answered your puzzled look, when she asked you, almost as mischievously as if this was part of one of her pranks:  
“Oh, so you couldn’t even keep something as simple as a prank from him, could you? You’re worse in love with him than we thought.”

“I didn’t tell him our plan. He has seen us coming up from Hogsmeade and– Wait, _what?_ ”

Tonks giggled.  
“You know, we always wondered whether you talked about our pranks with him too. We actually had a bet going.”  
“And I won,” Tulip grinned. 

You didn’t know what to do. They knew? How? You had not told anyone, because you knew how annoying people in love were. Or at least you thought they were annoying. You were sure you hadn’t let it show. You had tried not to be too gloomy around them, because you knew it was silly and it was un– Talbott!  
With panic you looked at him. Now he knew too. He would never trust you again. It had been so hard to build up the trust he had in you. Now that was all gone. He wouldn’t meet up with you in the Owlery any more and he most certainly would never have any conversation with you ever again.  
His face had turned grey and he looked as if he was sick. 

“I’m sorry,” you said and wanted to leave the Great Hall immediately. A hand caught you at your wrist. Penny.

“You’re going nowhere. Tulip, Tonks, stop giggling like that. Talbott,” she faced him determinately and he sunk under the table a bit, “you will go to the courtyard with her and the two of you will finally talk. I won’t watch you dance around each other like this any longer.”

She seemed angry. Was there something between her and him? Had you misstepped and gone too far, bringing yourself between them, invading their space? You felt so guilty.

“Penny, please, I’m sorry. I never meant to come between you and Talbott. I know you have known each other for such a long time. Really, I didn’t mean to. I wanted to wait it out, you know. I didn’t mean for you to find it out like that.”

Talbott turned green. Between him and Penny? What were you talking about? Somehow this was too much for him. He looked to Penny for help. She just signalled him to get up with a movement of her head. Despite being an early bird, she seemed rather tired now.

“Courtyard. Now. Bloody tell her.”

Looking back, you had no idea how Talbott and you made it to the courtyard. His face went back to grey, but he was very silent, even for him. His hand grabbed your arm so tightly that you didn’t know if he was doing it to drag you with him or if he was holding himself up on you. 

You knew you had to tell him now. It felt weird. The feeling of inevitable doom above your head grew bigger. _Lies are only as good as the readiness of the person they are told to to believe them._ You knew Talbott liked to be friends with you. Would he accept it if you told him that Tulip and Tonks were just joking? That Penny had misunderstood? Would he readily believe that? But it would be unfair to deny it now. Penny was your friend too. And she had been awfully nice to you despite the fact that you had been avoiding her. You couldn’t lie. Not to her.  
To Talbott neither, if you were being honest. 

And who knew, maybe confessing now would make you feel less conflicted than you were at the moment. If things got nasty, you could till run away and hide in the Forbidden Forest….  
You were being over-dramatic again. Still. Wasn’t all this supposed to be something nice? Again you thought of Rowan’s novels. Because she had brought you to read one of them once, you knew you didn’t like stuff like that. In the novels, the confession always was something grande. Not two teenagers feeling sick.

You heard Talbott whisper your name and looked up. His hand was not clenched into the sleeve of your robe any more. He had stepped back a bit and eyed you strangely. 

He was … afraid?  
You sighed. Now or never.

“Talbott, listen, I really didn’t want this to happen. When you and I became friends, I didn’t mean to push myself between you and Penny. She is a clever and pretty witch and the most wonderful person I know. That’s why I wanted to wait it out. I mean, we’re only teenagers, so I know things like this will pass. I don’t know how Tulip and Tonks found out, but they can be quite clever, if they want. I promise you, I will pull back now. Hogwarts is big, we could take a break from each other for a while, and when I’m back to normal, maybe we can be friends again?” 

The words just spilled out of you after you had spent so many days violently pushing them back deep inside yourself. 

“A break?” he rasped in response.

“Yes, I mean, we could also stop being friends altogether, but maybe you and Penny can forgive me and when I’m back to normal, we could all be friends again.”

“Normal?”

You grew a tiny bit impatient. Did you really have to say it out loud? You looked at your feet a while and then finally plucked up the courage from somewhere on the stone plates of the courtyard to answer him.

“Well, back to not having a crush on you.”

At that muttered answer of yours, Talbott’s face forgot to be grey. He felt it getting warm again.

Normally, he would have turned away now. No one was supposed to see him like this. But there was no one there except you. And somehow, it didn’t feel as bad if you saw him like that. After all, you were the reason for him blushing. 

Normally… What was normal, when it meant you wouldn’t be with him any more? The answer was quite simple, much simpler than he had thought it would be: nothing. You had made it easier for him once more. He looked at you, your gaze still firmly cast down on the ground. So you had felt the same all the time? But you hadn’t noticed?  
He started to chuckle. That was what Penny had meant with ‘dancing around each other.’ He really was a bad Ravenclaw, not having realised it before. His heart jumped in his chest upon his belated epiphany. But you were still looking down. At least, he was not the only one taking his time to understand. He grinned. You might be better at the whole conversation and sharing part in general, but now it was his turn to explain it to you.

“I don’t want you to be normal.”

“What?”

He came a bit closer and touched your arm again. Softly this time. It made you look into his face, in which there was a slight hint of pink. There was neither surprise, nor anger or fear in his eyes any more. They were glowing as warmly as when he had laughed about you sneaking out of the castle for a prank. They were searching yours, holding your gaze firmly while he answered.

“I like the way you are now. I wouldn’t want you to change a bit. If anything, I guess it’s me who needs to change. I need to open my mouth much more often. I should have a while ago, but it feels like I’m still learning it. … I guess I should have told you that I love our little talks in the Owlery; yet, I always feel that you’d deserve me to be much better at them. … I love it when you smile and the fact that I don’t make you smile half as often as your friends drives me crazy. …. Being with you is easy and … warm and … _feathery_ … and I want to spend time with you so much more often, but – to be honest – I don’t know how...”

He seemed to be a bit out of breath, but looked smugly into your eyes. There was still a hint of concern in his face. Did you get his meaning? How explicit was one supposed to be about things like this? There were tiny furrows on your forehead, while your eyes seemed to look for something in his. His gaze did not falter. If he failed now, he lost. 

Then, your face lit up, excitedly.

“Was that what Penny meant when she told you to tell me?”

Finally, you understood. The amused spark was back in his eyes. He felt that talking to you had just become easier. He was getting better at this. Now, it didn’t matter that he had blushed in front of you, because your cheeks were just as pink as his. He had begun telling you things and it felt amazing. Even more so, since he knew now that you felt the same way about him.

“She can be quite a pain, you know. Especially when she knows how you feel before you can acknowledge it yourself.” 

He smiled like he had yesterday evening. You loved to see him like this. You loved to know for sure this time that his smile was meant only for you. You sighed again, but not heavily this time. This time it was a sigh as light as a feather. There was just one more thing left to say. Just because you wanted to get it out. Clear as day. 

“Talbott Winger, I am in love with you.”

His smile grew wider.

“I am in love with you too. And I am sorry to be such a slow learner.”  
“I guess I’m not much better myself.”

He chuckled.  
“No, not really.”

You could still feel his smirk when he softly locked his lips with yours, his arms still tenderly pressing your shoulders and yours lightly rested on his waist.

That was even better than the Owlery, he decided. Holding you this close was even warmer and better than anything the West Tower could provide. Despite the fact that now, that breakfast was over, the courtyard started to fill with people. Maybe even better than having started to learn how to tell you all the things he wanted you to know. Perhaps, even better than flying.

Eventually, you two went back to the Great Hall. When you entered, Talbott chuckled again, suddenly recalling something. 

“So what is this prank of yours about, now?”

You smirked playfully.

“Didn’t I tell you to wait and see, Winger?”  
“Well, yes, but since so much good has come from it already, more or less, I would like to know what the actual outcome was supposed to be.”  
“Let’s just say that potions class might be a bit more like frog choir today.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who has made it this far,
> 
> Thank you very much for reading my little story. I have enjoyed writing it, although the fact that I felt inspired by a mobile game to pick up writing fan fiction after almost ten years still feels a little bit embarrassing.


End file.
